Turn Your Weekends Into Mini-Vacations

Turn Your Weekends Into Mini-Vacations(vāˈkāSHən,və-)

You don’t need to leave town to think about your days of rest in a way that sends you back to work on Monday a happier person

By Sue(so͞o) Shellenbarger(sha,lənbərgər)

There’s a reason most people return to work Monday feeling no better than they did Friday afternoon.

Fatigue(fəˈtēg) and stress on the job are problems for two out of three workers, and weekends usually aren’t much help, studies show.

New research suggests a surprisingly(sərˈprīziNGlē) simple solution: Pretend(prəˈtend) your weekend is a vacation.

People instructed to adopt(əˈdäpt) a vacation mind-set on the weekend returned to work feeling happier and more refreshed(rəˈfreSH), without spending any additional(əˈdiSHənl) money or time off, according to research on nearly 1,000 full-time workers at the University(ˌyo͞onəˈvərsədē) of California(ˌkaləˈfôrnyə), Los Angeles. Although participants(pärˈtisəpənt) spent a little more time on eating and intimacy(ˈintəməsē) with loved ones, researchers found after controlling the results for specific(spəˈsifik) behaviors that just one factor—their increased focus on the present(ˈprezənt) moment, or mindfulness—predicted(prəˈdikt) greater happiness.

“Merely(ˈmi(ə)rlē) shifting(ˈSHiftiNG) how you’re thinking can have these wonderful effects on your emotional(əˈmōSH(ə)n(ə)l) experience and your time,” says Cassie Mogilner(mōˈgilˈnər) Holmes(hōmz), a researcher on the project, which was described(dəˈskrīb) in January(ˈjanyəˌwerē) in the Harvard Business Review. Dr. Mogilner Holmes is an associate(əˈsōsēˌāt, əˈsōSHēˌāt) professor of marketing(ˈmärkədiNG) at UCLA’s Anderson(ˈandərsən) School of Management(ˈmanijmənt) and a leading researcher on happiness.

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/turn-your-weekends-into-mini-vacations-11553606806